ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2023
Problematic social media use and mental health risks among first-year Chinese undergraduates: a three-wave longitudinal study.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Exploring the relationship between social media use and loneliness in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Pooled it
- Loneliness and Problematic Media Use: Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Bidirectional Longitudinal Associations Between Problematic Social Media Use and Emotional Symptoms in Adolescents: Results From a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Longitudinal effects of social media feedback on psychological distress in young adults: the mediating roles of self-esteem and social comparison.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Digital social contacts predict reduced loneliness in chronic depression: an exploratory longitudinal study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Observational
- Social Media Use Intensity and Social Media Use Problems in Relation to Interpersonal Adaptation During the Transition to College: An Intensive Longitudinal Study.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Longitudinal association between problematic social media use and school refusal among adolescents: a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The impact of social media addiction on depression among university students in Wuhan, China: a longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of technology addiction in adolescents: associations with food addiction, emotional eating, and body weight status.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024Article
- Procrastination Mediates the Relationship between Problematic TikTok Use and Depression among Young Adults.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Lonely and scrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic: understanding the problematic social media use and mental health link among university students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: The association between social media use and mental health risks has been widely investigated over the past two decades with many cross-sectional studies reporting that problematic social media use (PSMU) is associated with higher mental health risk such as anxiety and depression. The present study examined the relationship between PSMU severity and mental health risks (depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness) using a three-wave longitudinal design. Methods: A total of 685 first-year Chinese undergraduate students (Mean age = 19.12 years, SD = 0.92) completed surveys at three times points with intervals of 3 to 4 months. Results revealed that PSMU was positively correlated with all the mental health risk variables over the three time points. Results: The prevalence of PSMU increased over the three research waves. Cross-lagged models identified bi-directional relationships between PSMU and mental health risks, while such links were not consistent between different mental health risk variables and can change over different research intervals. Discussion: This study indicates that PSMU and mental health risks could predict each other in a vicious loop, but the differences between specific mental health risks and the research context (e.g., different term times and experiences in university) should not be ignored. Further research attention should be paid to the prevalence of PSMU and mental health conditions among Chinese first-year undergraduates who appear to have difficulties in adapting to university life.
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